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Success Stories

The Ricks and their daughters!

I would like to recommend the Cross Creek programs to any parent who has an out of control child. Our experience began 5 years ago. We have a daughter who began running away from home. She was out of control and hanging out with other children who were using drugs and alcohol. We found out that she was about to run away again and this time she was planning to go to the state of Washington to join a witchcraft cult. We didn’t know where to turn. We talked to other people who had sent their children to Cross Creek and they had very good results.

We sent Danielle and have never regretted our decision. She graduated the program on February 29, 2004. She has come so far. Danielle is actually our grand daughter. We have had legal custody of her and her little sister for over 10 years. Her parents are both drug addicts and she was very resentful that we stepped in to help her and her sister. Since being in the program she has learned that being a victim of her parents caused her to go through uncontrollable depression, anger and deceit.

While in the program, Danielle asked us to adopt her and her sister. We are about to go to court to do that. She is very appreciative of what we’ve done for her. She tells us that we helped to save her life by sending her to Cross Creek. Little did we know that she had already tried to kill herself three times when she was at home? She had been under the care of a psychologist, but because of the California state laws, this therapist could not tell us what was really going on with Danielle. Even she didn’t know that Danielle had become a cutter three years before she was sent to Cross Creek.

We agree with Danielle and truly believe that this program saved her life. She is now a very wonderful nineteen-year-old. She started the first ever Teen Alanon group at Cross Creek. She is standing in her integrity and is a very accountable young lady.

If we had to make a choice to send her sister to a program, we would not hesitate to choose Cross Creek Manor. I have never seen anything at the Cross Creek facility that wasn’t absolutely appropriate. I have staffed a seminar with Cross Creek children and was amazed at how much they seemed to appreciate the help they were getting at the school. Our daughter has been home for almost three years and she has never told us anything negative about this program. I’ve asked her if she ever saw any abuse and she said that was ridiculous.

I highly recommend the programs at Cross Creek for any child. It has saved so many children. The most important thing that this program does is to provide seminars for parents. It is very important that the parents learn the same skills that their children learn. That way everyone is on the same page when the child comes home. This program is very unique in that it includes the whole family. I’ve seen divorced parents who never talked to each other come together as they completed the parent seminars. I am so committed to this program that I have staffed nine parent seminars, volunteering more than 600 hours in the last five years. I am also a family support group leader for the San Jose Support Group. I don’t think any other program offers these valuable tools for the parents.

If you would like to contact me in person, please feel free to call me at (408) 244-6757. My email address is ***@earthlink.net

Sincerely,

JoAnn Ricks
Cross Creek Parent
Retired High School English Teacher

The problem really began in her pre-teen years, the challenging of authority and failure to account for personal behavior. We were told that she would probably grow out of it eventually and just to sit tight and maintain strict standards. But after four years of a strict boarding school the problem grew worse. Our daughter was faced with expulsion from her school for her practices of undermining the school authorities, her teachers and her peers. While she was home on break, public scenes became routine as did calls for help to the police department. This problem was too big for us as our daughter had somewhere along the way lost respect for her parents and her teachers. Our daughter is currently in the Program and has undergone considerably change. . . especially in the way she relates to her peers and authority figures. Each student in the Program is asked to follow the instructions given to them, make their beds and participate in the activities and school work assigned to them. They are rewarded favorably for complying and lose points if the tasks are not performed. But beyond compliance is the encouragement for acting out positively toward their peers, simply for the sake of doing a nice thing for someone. She now writes “I’m just beginning to realize how much love my parents have given me and how much I’ve taken for granted”.

What we can say today is that the Program has given her a controlled but loving and supportive environment that allows her to focus on herself, her behavior and the results of her behavior. The Program is also allowing us to get on with our lives and to heal together as a whole family. We look forward to the day our daughter graduates and comes home again to start a new life of love and respect for one another.

- Parents of a Student

Before I came to the Program I was into substance abuse, running away and being defiant. I was not happy, and if I would have stayed that way for a while longer I know I would have ended my existence.

I have a new respect for what I have now. I will treat my mom with respect now, not like trash, as I once did. Yes, there are times when things will go wrong or when we do not agree, but there is never going to be a ‘perfect’ family. This experience has helped prepare me for appreciating my family at home. This place has made me a much stronger person, and I am grateful for that.

For all the parents out there that care enough about their kids to give then a new life and chance. . . Thank You!

- Graduate

My daughter is a graduate of the Program, and it saved her life. Sending my daughter to the Program was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. The consequences of NOT sending her were too terrible to even think about. After much research I chose this program because they would treat my daughter with a great deal of love and respect. It was highly structured; her choices created her results. In order for her to ‘move up the levels’ she had to prove herself to the staff and to her peers. It turned out that is was much more difficult to fool her peers than to fool the staff. They also have parent seminars. This isn’t a program to ‘fix’ your child. This is a program that heals the whole family, including yourself. The Program deals with personal change, internalized change. This is a program that encourages change through the love and support of peers and staff alike but does not happen overnight. The patterns and habits of bad choices did not happen overnight either.

My daughter graduated over 2 years ago and is doing great. Our family operates much differently now than it had before. We treat each other with respect.

- Mother of a Student